Spotify's Algorithm: Effective Streaming Hacks for Music Artists

Are you a music artist on Spotify? Looking forward to improving your stream count? Get to know some effective Streaming and Algorithm Hacks for Spotify.

Spotify is one of the most influential music streaming platforms in the market right now that has helped millions of music artists to pave a successful music career. This streaming platform has a huge listener base across the world which makes it ideal for music artists to gain more listeners and fans from this platform. One of the reasons behind this efficiency is the algorithm of Spotify which helps to leverage more listeners for the artists. It helps to reach out to the relevant listeners who can actually turn into loyal fans. 

If you are a music artist as well and looking forward to finding out the tricks behind utilizing the algorithm for your benefit, find out the Spotify hacks that can help you stay on top of search results and playlists made for the users. 

How does the Spotify Algorithm work?

Spotify’s algorithm is based on an AI system known as BART, or Bandits for Recommendations as Treatments. BART has a simple objective, to keep the listeners listening. It keeps playing and suggesting tracks to listeners. It makes sure the recommended songs are new, fresh, and most importantly; a song that the user has not listened to before. This makes sure that the listener is engaged on the platform and keeps listening to more tracks on Spotify. 

BART has Three Main Functions

    • Natural Language Processing – Analyses the lyrics, language, and content of a track

    • Raw Audio Analyzation – Determines ‘mood’ or ‘vibe’ of a track such as lo-fi, chill, heavy, energetic, minimal, instrumental, etc

    • Collaborative Filtering – Compares songs with listener’s habits and suggests song according to their tastes

Now that you know how the algorithm works, it is time to know how to get your music into the algorithm which makes it suggest your tracks to more listeners. In order to do that, you would require some effective Spotify hacks. 

1. All About The Stats

Spotify’s algorithm is driven by statistics and the platform is constantly working on how millions of users engage with different types of music every day. The algorithm is constantly monitoring and learning about the users and utilizes the statistical data to implement in their listener's experience and approach. Here are some of the important stats that you need to focus on, 

    • Skip rate (less skips = more recommendations)

    • Listening history (genre, mood, style,)

    • Listening time (getting past 30 seconds is key)

    • Playlist features (all personal, indie & official playlists)

2. Spotify-friendly Rule: 30 seconds

The 30-second mark is highly important as it is the limit for considering it as a count in the stream. For Spotify, the first 30 seconds is crucial as it provides positive bits of data. If any listener is engaged in your track for more than 30 seconds, it will be considered as a stream only. This stream can be monetized too. However, that does not mean you will start making tracks for 30 seconds. You just need to make it Spotify-friendly where the first 30 seconds of the song is highly engaging for everyone. The first 30 seconds can also help to improve the algorithm and ranking on the platform based on the stream count. 

3. Timing Makes a Huge Difference

When it comes to Spotify, timing can make a huge difference in the market. It is said that the first 12 to 24 hours after the release of a music project is the most crucial time. What matters even more is how the newly released song gets low skip rates. The listening time for your track can be a day or days after the release of the track. Therefore it is crucial to keep an eye on the time. You are also required to create hype about your music before its release so that you can get an applauding response on the day of release. Make sure to keep your fans engaged to make them save your track. 

The market is filled with plenty of competitors. So, if you find a renowned artist releasing on the same day, you should reschedule to gain your exposure separately. 

4. Playlist Hacks

Playlists are the latest mediums of promotion on Spotify. There are Release Radar & Discover Weekly playlists to offer a significant boost to every music artist’s career. These are all algorithmic playlists and getting featured in it can improve your growth in the platform. However, the editorial playlists by the company are not accessible to music artists as it is specially curated by the editors of the company. If you are willing to get a feature, you would need to pitch the editors via mail with a professional approach. There are playlists made by playlist creators which are outside the company’s own lists. These curated playlists are great for promotion and help to gain a lot of exposure. 

5. Utilize Tags and Pitches

You need to utilize the benefits and tools offered by Spotify for Artists which are specially designed for the artists to gain more exposure. It can help add meta tags and pitches based on mood, genres, etc. These tags work like natural keywords and help your music be part of the algorithm. 

6. Utilize Social Media

Social media platforms are the best mediums to gain more traction as most online users can be found there. You should sync your social media platforms to drive more traffic to your Spotify account. Spotify itself can work as a social media platform as well since it has a huge user and an active user base of millions around the world. The algorithm likes it when you can bring more users to Spotify from other platforms. 

7. Boost Your Profile

The appearance of your profile also matters when it comes to the Spotify algorithm. A neat profile with a proper bio, information, cover images, profile images, verified Blue tick, etc can help an artist represent more authenticity which is further pushed by the algorithm. And user also prefers such attractive profiles to explore more about the artists. 

Final Thoughts

It is not easy to focus on your passion for music and its marketing at the same time. You can be a good artist but not all good artists are a marketing expert. Therefore, you should consult or hire an expert professional or agency to be part of the Spotify algorithm.